Bobzien presents the definitive study of one of the most interesting intellectual legacies of the ancient Greeks: the Stoic theory of causal determinism. She explains what it was, how the Stoics justified it, and how it relates to their views on possibility, action, freedom, moral responsibility, and many other topics. She demonstrates the considerable philosophical richness and power that these ideas retain today.

Determinism and Freedom in Stoic Philosophy

Politics & Social Sciences

Bobzien, Susanne

Philosophy

Oxford University Press

Determinism, Freedom, and Moral Responsibility brings together nine essays on determinism, freedom and moral responsibility in antiquity by Susanne Bobzien. The essays present the main ancient theories of determinism, freedom, and moral responsibility ranging from Aristotle via Epicureans andStoics to Alexander of Aphrodisias in the third century CE. The author discusses questions about rational and autonomous human agency and their compatibility with preceding causes, external or internal; with external impediments; with divine predetermination and theological questions; with physicaltheories like atomism and continuum theory, and with the sciences more generally; with elements that determine character development from childhood, such as nature and nurture; with epistemic features such as ignorance of circumstances; with necessity and modal theories generally; with folk theoriesof fatalism; and also with questions of how human autonomous agency is related to moral development, virtue and wisdom, blame and praise. Historically unified, philosophically profound, and methodologically rigorous, Bobzien's discussions show that in classical and Hellenistic philosophy thesetopics were all debated without reference to freedom to do otherwise or to free will, and that the latter two notions were fully developed only later.

Determinism, Freedom, and Moral Responsibility: Essays in Ancient Philosophy

Bobzien presents the definitive study of one of the most interesting intellectual legacies of the ancient Greeks: the Stoic theory of causal determinism. She explains what it was, how the Stoics justified it, and how it relates to their views on possibility, action, freedom, moral responsibility, and many other topics. She demonstrates the considerable philosophical richness and power that these ideas retain today.

Clarendon Press

Alexander of Aphrodisias, who flourished c. 200AD, was the leading Peripatetic philosopher of his age. Most of his philosophical energies were spent in commenting upon Aristotle: his commentary on the Prior Analytics remains one of the most thorough and helpful guides to this difficult work; in addition, the commentary preserves invaluable information about various aspects of Stoic logic, and it also presents a picture of categorical syllogistic at a turning point in its historical development. This volume contains a translation of the first third of the commentary - the part dealing with non-modal syllogistic. The translation is preceded by a substantial introduction which discusses Alexander's place in the commentatorial tradition and his use of logical terminology. The book is completed by a translation of the pertinent part of the Prior Analytics, a summary account of categorical syllogistic, and a set of indexes.

Alexander of Aphrodisias: On Aristotle Prior Analytics 1.1-7 (Ancient Commentators on Aristotle)

Barnes, Jonathan

Flannery, Kevin

Ierodiakonou, Katerina

Bloomsbury Academic

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Books by Bobzien, Susanne

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bobzien, Susanne. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Determinism and Freedom in Stoic Philosophy

Determinism, Freedom, and Moral Responsibility: Essays in Ancient Philosophy

Determinism and Freedom in Stoic Philosophy

Alexander of Aphrodisias: On Aristotle Prior Analytics 1.1-7 (Ancient Commentators on Aristotle)